Not knowing what Mo Yan writes about it would be difficult to discern his statement, knowing the political ideologies of the Nobel committee(statist/socialist) you can get somewhat of a clue as to what he represents.

Re:

No, I think he meant it. Talk to almost any Chinese living there for most of his life, and he will probably tell you the same thing. These are people who all their life have been told that things such are censorship are a "good" thing to "protect" the "unity of the society" and against all sorts of "bad stuff".

This is what's so sad about states that censor or do mass surveillance on their people. After about 2 decades or so of doing it, the new generations are born with it, and the whole society will start believing that they are good things, and never were bad things.

And this is the danger that is running in US right now, too. A whole generation growing with things like TSA, Patriot Act, and warrantless spying, and thinking those things have always existed and it's a necessary thing that the government needs to do to keep them safe.

We need censorship like...

Tongue in cheek?

Really smart Chinese have to be extremely clever to get messages regarding personal freedoms out into the wild without getting in serious trouble with the authorities back home, who tend to be very literal. Personally, I think this was such a message, or at least I'd like it to be... :-)

The important part is clear

Whether he believes that these things are necessary or not is in some ways less important than the equivalence he has, rightly, drawn.

After all, few of us are extremists. Most of us believe that some security is necessary at the expense of some convenience, for example. It is scalar, even if the spectrum on techdirt is likely to be at the more liberal side.

However, almost all of us put less emphasis on the undesireable elements of own culture than we put on the undesirable elements of other cultures.

I agree

I agree with the statement. My argument is we don't need airport security because it's too expensive and the benefit is not worth the price. Censorship is also unnecessary.
Yes, I'd love to go back in time to the 70s when you could walk up to the gate, buy a ticket and hop on the plane minutes before departure time. I argue that we're no safer today than we were then.